Post-apocalyptic models from army men

[James Holloway]

A long time ago, I purchased a tub of army men at Poundland. I needed them for something completely different (they were counters on a map board in a LARP I was playing in), but after that was over I thought, well ... waste not, want not. Then I threw them in a drawer and forgot about them.

Now, finally, I have decided to start turning them into figures for my upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG. Some of them have appeared here before as guards in my post-apocalyptic marketplace project, but others are new.

Each figure was turned into a character by the addition of new heads, backpacks, accessories and sometimes hands and weapons. My bits box is pretty well-stocked, so I think I didn't buy anything for this project. Here are some of the ones I've already completed, together with their original models:









And here's one WIP:



They're a bit rough and ready, but a) it's the apocalypse, and b) the price is right.

Obviously a lot of different bits were used here: there are GW, Ramshackle, Frostgrave, Bolt Action and probably some others I'm not thinking of, but if you want to know what something is I'll try to answer.

[commissarmoody]

Not a bad idea, and great use of recycled figs.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice job.

[Ragsta]

That's... That's actually really good indeed. I like the multitude of parts choices and they look convincingly appropriate too.

[Hupp n at em]

Any idea if they have army men on the smaller (pseudo 28mm) side of things in the US? I've only seen the cheapo army men in the 40-54mm range around here.

[Brummie Thug]

Cracking idea. They look really good and you obviously have the knack for putting them together and bringing them to life. Great work!

[Exiledadmiral]

They look great! If I hadn't seen the original figures by the side i'd have thought they were just post apocalyptic figures.

[James Holloway]

Any idea if they have army men on the smaller (pseudo 28mm) side of things in the US? I've only seen the cheapo army men in the 40-54mm range around here.

I don't know! The ones I bought were sold under the name "Battle Squadron" and I gather some people have seen them on Wish, but I've also seen models of similar design but different scale. My guess would be they're out there, but it can be hard to be sure you have the right ones.

[James Holloway]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Here's another new guy! Following up on a discussion I had with some folks on Facebook, I tried to model a cloak on this one. One of my big concerns is mitigating the flatness of the design -- that's why a lot of them have backpacks. In this case I bulked out the back with some putty, then slapped the tissue paper cloak on over it. It looks OK, I think!



The head is from the Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago boxed set, and the arm with pistol is from the Ramshackle Iron Brotherhood (I think). The arm doesn't fit the shoulder very well -- cloak to the rescue once again!

[mellis1644]

Very impressive IMO.

[Sbloom141]

Having just seen some of these in the local pound shop I can truly appreciate the work it’s taken to get the conversions looking this good bravo!

[Sunjester]

Excellent conversion work.

[livanbard]

This is awesome. Simply.

[Lau]

They turn out sooo nice!

[kalebdaark]

Old School.   When you didn't have a bunch of companies making post-apocalyptic minis or buildings or whatnot - you were left to your own devices.   If you wanted it to exist, you had to make it happen.

Glad someone hasn't forgotten how - or has rediscovered the lost art.